2020 PPL Momentum artist Low Island share new single In Your Arms alongside an arresting video directed by Bristol-based animator Patrick Atkins.
Reminiscent of the swirling textures found on Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool as well as the modulating synths from Caribou's Suddenly, 'In Your Arms' sees the Oxford quartet intertwine wonderfully, with guitars and synth lines hazily blending together as Posada's silky voice glides on top. The sorrow of a lost twenties, a prominent theme across their music, is evident; 'In Your Arms' mourns people moving on and times changing with staggering musical clarity, but there's hope among the chaos and the loss, too:
Posada: 'In Your Arms is a love letter to my childhood bedroom. It's about how objects or spaces that are important to us can get tangled up in our past and present, and how the memories and emotions they evoke can both comfort us and weigh us down. I find this to be particularly true of spaces we associate with childhood - they are heavy, often with so many contradictory feelings which complicates our relationship with them. This combination of comfort and oppression through nostalgia was at the heart of the conversations we had with Patrick about the video. We talked about artists like Rachel Whiteread and Robert Kipniss, playing with everyday objects and abstracting them to take on new meanings.'
Patrick previously collaborated with Low Island during their Low Island and Friends tour back in 2017. His work has been featured widely in exhibitions in spaces like Cafe Kino and Hamilton House in Bristol, and he has recently directed videos for bands such as Zooni and Kwoon.
The new track follows fresh on the heels of the band's triumphant return with Don't Let The Light In, which has received wide support across BBC6music and Radio1, appearing on playlists such as Spotify's New Music Friday and The Indie List , as well as featuring on the soundtrack of FIFA 2021.
Creating a bubble in rural France, the band rented a barn and locked down together, allowing them to continue writing and recording music over the course of this year. This recording is born out of those sessions, produced entirely by the band themselves and mixed by Matt Wiggins (Holy f, Porridge Radio, Glass Animals).
As well as working on new material, the band have spent their time in France learning everything they could about the music industry and, like so many artists, working out how to survive in the post-Covid landscape. Out of this was born their own label, Emotional Interference, allowing them to fully take the reins over their own destiny. Accruing a "small-scale production company's worth of stuff," from across their career, and with the ability to create their own light show, produce and conceptualise their own videos, and record and produce their own music - as well as having the music industry know-how to handle their affairs - Low Island have become a DIY machine.
Recent recipients of PPL's Momentum Grant, Low Island is made up of singer and multi-instrumentalist Carlos Posada, producer Jamie Jay, bass player Jacob Lively and jazz drummer Felix Higginbottom. Their off-kilter electronics have been lauded by NME, Wonderland, The Independent, The Times, The Line of Best Fit and more. Their last EP featured in 6music's Lauren Laverne and Tom Robinson's highlights of 2019, and was accompanied by a critically acclaimed UK tour in collaboration with Arts Council England. A full live performance from the tour is available here.
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